The “Positive Argument” for Constructive Empiricism and Inference to the Best Explanation

In this paper, I argue that the “positive argument” for Constructive Empiricism (CE), according to which CE “makes better sense of science, and of scientific activity, than realism does” (van Fraassen in The scientific image, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1980, 73), is an Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE). But constructive empiricists are critical of IBE, and thus they have to be critical of their own “positive argument” for CE. If my argument is sound, then constructive empiricists are in the awkward position of having to reject their own “positive argument” for CE by their own lights.     

Peirce-Suit of Truth – Why Inference to the Best Explanation and Abduction Ought Not to be Confused

It is well known that the process of scientific inquiry, according to Peirce, is drivenby three types of inference, namely abduction, deduction, and induction. What isbehind these labels is, however, not so clear. In particular, the common identificationof abduction with Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE) begs the question,since IBE appears to be covered by Peirce's concept of induction, not that of abduction.Consequently, abduction ought to be distinguished from IBE, at least on Peirce's account. The main aim of the paper, however, is to show that this distinction is most relevant with respect to current problems in philosophy of science and epistemology (like attempts to supply suitable notions of realism and truth as well as related concepts like coherence and unification). In particular, I also try to show that (and in what way) Peirce's inferential triad can function as a method that ensures both coherence and correspondence. It is in this respect that his careful distinction between abduction and induction (or IBE) ought to be heeded.     

Inference to the best explanation: does it track truth?

In the form of inference known as inference to the best explanation there are various ways to characterise what is meant by the best explanation. This paper considers a number of such characterisations including several based on confirmation measures and several based on coherence measures. The goal is to find a measure which adequately captures what is meant by ‘best’ and which also yields the truth with a high degree of probability. Computer simulations are used to show that the overlap coherence measure achieves this goal, enabling the true explanation to be identified almost as often as an approach which simply selects the most probable explanation. Further advantages to this approach are also considered in the case where there is uncertainty in the prior probability distribution.     

Cities’ Policies: the Work of European Cities to Counter Muslim Radicalisation

Intercultural relations might form the foundation for new developments and can stimulate energy in modern cities, but in some cases, these relations can also become the source of divergence and conflict. In the last decade, several European cities have been confronted with violent incidents related to some form of extremism. Some cities had to cope with violence by Muslim extremists, for instance Amsterdam, which dealt with the murder of Theo van Gogh. Other cities experienced violence from anti-immigrant or extreme-right movements, for instance London, where mosques were attacked. Radicalisation of small groups of immigrants or autochthonous people, who are distressed about intercultural relations, seemed to lie behind these incidents. Pressured by such events, some administrations in Europe developed policies. In this paper, we will discuss a number of examples of such local policies. We will discuss some programmes that we observed in cities that took part in our own fieldwork, the Cities Local Integration Policies (CLIP) project, which took place from 2007 to 2011.. Our results show that both cities that do have de-radicalisation policies and cities that do not actually work on what phase theorists would call the breeding ground for radicalisation and on the final violent stage of terrorist acts. The difference between the two mainly lies in (not) addressing religious conservatism. We conclude the article with some remarks regarding this choice, also reflecting on the impact of the phase model supported at that time.     

Explanation and Understanding: Action as “Historical Structure”

The first part of this essay is basically historical. It introduces the explanation–understanding divide, focusing in particular on the general–unique distinction. The second part is more philosophical and it presents two different claims on action. In the first place, I will try to say what it means to understand an action. Secondly, we will focus on the explanation of action as it is seen in some explanatory sciences. I will try to argue that in some cases these sciences commit what I call an “external contradiction”.

The Best–Worst Scaling Approach: An Alternative to Schwartz's Values Survey

The miniature situations method is a behavioral approach to personality assessment. The work reported here attempted to adopt the miniature situations format for measuring the concept of openness-to-experience. A factor analysis of 38 miniature situations items resulted in nine openness factors. There was evidence for the concurrent validity of four of these factors. When the same openness items were presented in a self-report format to an independent sample, openness scores tended to be substantially higher.     

As easy to memorize as they are to classify: The 5–4 categories and the category advantage

Recently, it has been suggested that some categories commonly used in category learning research are eliciting primarily item-level memorization strategies. A new measure of generalization, the category advantage, was introduced and used to test performance on the popular "5-4" categories. To estimate a category advantage, performance on a standard category learning task is compared with performance in an identification task, where participants learn a unique response to each stimulus. Once corrected for differences in chance expectancy, the advantage shown for the category learning task represents the degree to which participants capitalize on the natural similarity structure of the categories. In Experiment 1, the category advantage measure was validated on structured and unstructured categories. In Experiments 2 and 3, the 5-4 categories failed to produce a category advantage when tested with either of two stimulus types, suggesting that these categories elicit predominantly memorization.     

Who Is Afraid of the Chinese State? Evidence Calling into Question Political Fear as an Explanation for Overreporting of Political Trust

Public opinion polls show that political trust tends to be higher in authoritarian regimes compared to liberal democracies. Many scholars have argued that respondents may provide false answers out of fear about repercussions by the state, thereby skewing survey results in a positive direction. Using an unobtrusive measure based on affect transfer, we find that adult participants in experiments conducted in China transfer positive affect toward the state onto evaluations of television advertisements upon mere exposure to the name of a central party institution. Participants did not have incentives to lie because they did not associate the advertisements with the state. Furthermore, people who evaluated the ads more positively upon viewing the name of the state also reported more positive levels of trust in government. Together, these findings raise doubt that Chinese misrepresent political trust in surveys out of political fear.     

Informant reports add incrementally to the understanding of the perfectionism–depression connection: Evidence from a prospective longitudinal study

Perfectionism is a putative risk factor for depressive symptoms. However, most research in this area uses cross-sectional designs (which fail to address temporal precedence) and mono-source designs (which are influenced by various biases). The present study overcomes these limitations by using a novel design involving both self- and informant reports of self-critical perfectionism (i.e., negative reactions to perceived failures, concern over others’ criticism and expectations, doubts about performance abilities, and intense self-rebuke). It was hypothesized that self- and informant reports of self-critical perfectionism would correlate moderately and that self- and informant reports of self-critical perfectionism would predict increases in depressive symptoms over time. A sample of 155 target participants and 588 informants was recruited and studied using a prospective longitudinal design. All study hypotheses were supported, including evidence that self- and informant reports of self-critical perfectionism each add incrementally to the understanding of the self-critical perfectionism–depressive symptoms connection. Informant reports may provide a more complete picture of the self-critical perfectionist and her or his vulnerability to depressive symptoms.     

“Changing the Text”: Modeling Council Capacity to Produce Institutionalized Change

Collaboration is a ubiquitous approach to change, but is notoriously difficult and not definitively linked to desirable outcomes. Not surprisingly, the collaboration literature is replete with numerous facilitators and barriers to collaborative efforts. The current study aimed to develop a parsimonious model of factors influencing the success of collaborative efforts both internal and external to the council, including, (a) features of the council environment, (b) intermediate outcomes including the empowerment of members in the council context and the degree to which councils have generated social capital and (c) the extent to which collaborative efforts are occurring in a community context supportive of their aims. In particular, this study examines whether these factors affect the extent to which councils are positioned to achieve institutionalized change, or changes "in the text" that govern front line providers' (e.g., police, advocates) practices in the community response to intimate partner violence. Results suggest that perceived member empowerment, generation of social capital, and supportive community context are the most important predictors of the extent to which councils foster shifts in institutionalized change. Features of the council environment are only indirectly related to the degree to which institutionalized change is ultimately fostered as mediated by the generation of social capital. This suggests that the ability of members to act as change agents and the extent to which those in power support council efforts figure more prominently to facilitate or constrain council efforts than council functioning itself.     

Best friends forever?: High school best friendships and the transition to college

The transition from high school to college is an important phase for adolescents in social as well as academic aspects. This study examined the changes that occur in high school best friendships during the first year of college. Results revealed that during the first year in college high school best friendships declined in satisfaction, commitment, rewards, and investments. During this period there was also an increase in costs and alternatives to best friend relationships. Proximity did not influence the friendships; however, level of communication did moderate friendship deterioration. Furthermore, individuals who continued their best friendship reported engaging in more maintenance behaviors of positivity, supportiveness, self‐disclosure, and interaction than individuals who reported a change in the relationship to close or casual friendship. Maintaining the best friendship also appeared to buffer adolescents from social loneliness. The results are discussed in terms of the implications of transitions on adolescent friendships.     

Seeing the Problem: An Explanation From Pólya

In this article, we focus on the instructional explanation of guessing as a heuristic for solving the Five Planes Problem (FPP), given in a lesson by George Pólya. We use the analysis of the lesson to test the applicability of what is known about instructional explanations in elementary mathematics to higher mathematics. The most salient characteristic of Pólya's lesson is the profusion of models and representations used to develop a sense of the problem and to support the instructional explanation. Pólya used analogical models to transform the complex FFT to a simpler one, and he used representations to extend the perspective on the problem. Introducing such models and representations requires keeping track of the links between them and the original problem. Pólya excelled in this endeavor, and his passage to each new representation or model was generally justified in terms of the goals of the explanation. Another very important feature of an instructional explanation is problem identification, a fragile goal state that needs to be constantly maintained when the problem being explained is complex. For this lesson, we examine how Pólya established and maintained that goal. Finally, we offer some insight on instructional explanations in a situation in which the teacher needs to fulfill two goals at the same time. Here, the first goal was to teach students both how to solve FPP and how to use guessing as a problem-solving heuristic or strategy; the second goal was to show us how to teach guessing. Keeping these goals in mind, we offer some suggestions on how to teach metaskills through mathematical problems in accordance with the current understanding of constructivist approaches to learning.     

Language nonselective access to phonological representations: Evidence from Chinese–English bilinguals

Four experiments with Chinese–English bilinguals were conducted in order to investigate the hypothesis of language nonselective access to an integrated lexicon for bilingual phonological representations. Results of a naming task (in Experiments 1 and 2) and a lexical decision task (in Experiments 3 and 4) showed homophone priming effects regardless of priming direction (English to Chinese, or Chinese to English) or English proficiency. Our findings are compatible with the BIA+ model of bilingual processing, provide further support for the hypothesis of language nonselective access to an integrated lexicon for bilingual phonological representations, and extend the hypothesis to language pairs with very different writing systems.     

Introduction to the Special Section: Linking the MMPI–2–RF to Contemporary Models of Psychopathology

This special section considers 9 independent articles that seek to link the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2–Restructured Form (MMPI–2–RF; Ben-Porath &; Tellegen, 2008/2011 Ben-Porath, Y. S., &; Tellegen, A. (2011). MMPI–2–RF (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 Restructured Form) manual. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 2008) [Google Scholar]) to contemporary models of psychopathology. Sellbom (this issue Sellbom, M. (this issue). Mapping the MMPI–2–RF Specific Problems scales onto extant psychopathology structures. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1206909[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) maps the Specific Problems scales onto hierarchical psychopathology structures, whereas Romero, Toorabally, Burchett, Tarescavage, and Glassmire (this issue Romero, I. E., Toorabally, N., Burchett, D., Tarescavage, A. M., &; Glassmire, D. M. (this issue). Mapping the MMPI–2–RF Substantive scales onto internalizing, externalizing, and thought dysfunction dimensions in a forensic inpatient setting. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1223681[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and Shkalim, Almagor, and Ben-Porath (this issue Shkalim, E., Almagor, M., &; Ben-Porath, Y. S. (this issue). Examining current conceptualizations of psychopathology with the MMPI–2/MMPI–2–RF Restructured Clinical scales: Preliminary findings from a cross-cultural study. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1189429[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) show evidence of linking the instruments' scales to diagnostic representations of common higher order psychopathology constructs. McCord, Achee, Cannon, Harrop, and Poynter (this issue McCord, D. M., Achee, M. C., Cannon, E. M., Harrop, T. M., &; Poynter, W. D. (this issue). Using the research domain criteria framework to explore associations between MMPI–2–RF constructs and physiological variables assessed by eye-tracker technology. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1228067[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) link the MMPI–2–RF scales to psychophysiological constructs inspired by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria. Sellbom and Smith (this issue Sellbom, M. (this issue). Mapping the MMPI–2–RF Specific Problems scales onto extant psychopathology structures. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1206909[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) find support for MMPI–2–RF scale hypotheses in covering personality psychopathology in general, whereas Klein Haneveld, Kamphuis, Smid, and Forbey (this issue Klein Haneveld, E., Kamphuis, J.H., Smid, W., &; Forbey, J. D. (this issue). Using MMPI–2–RF correlates to elucidate the PCL–R and its four facets in a sample of male forensic psychiatric patients. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1228655[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and Kutchen et al. (this issue Kutchen, T. J., Wygant, D. B., Tylicki, J. L., Dieter, A. M., Veltri, C. O., &; Sellbom, M. (this issue). Construct validity of the MMPI–2–RF Triarchic Psychopathy scales in correctional and collegiate samples. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1238829[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) demonstrate the utility of the MMPI–2–RF in capturing contemporary conceptualizations of the psychopathic personality. Finally, Franz, Harrop, and McCord (this issue Franz, A. O., Harrop, T. M., &; McCord, D. M. (this issue). Examining the construct validity of the MMPI–2–RF Interpersonal Functioning scales using the Computerized Adaptive Test of Personality Disorder as a comparative framework. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1222394[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and Rogers et al. (this issue Rogers, M. L., Anestis, J. C., Harrop, T. M., Schneider, M., Bender, T. W., Ringer, F. B., &; Joiner, T. E. (this issue). Examination of MMPI–2–RF Substantive scales as indicators of acute suicidal affective disturbance components. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1222393[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) mapped the MMPI–2–RF scales onto more specific transdiagnostic constructs reflecting interpersonal functioning and suicide behavior proneness, respectively.     

Saving Lives: For the Best Outcome?

Philosophia - In this article, I critique a moral argument developed in Frances Kamm’s Intricate Ethics: Rights, Responsibilities, and Permissible Harm. The argument, which I label the Best...     

Equivalent explanations and mathematical realism. Reply to “Evidence,Explanation, and Enhanced Indispensability”

The author of “Evidence, Explanation, Enhanced Indispensability” advances a criticism to the Enhanced Indispensability Argument and the use of Inference to the Best Explanation in order to draw ontological conclusions from mathematical explanations in science. His argument relies on the availability of equivalent though competing explanations, and a pluralist stance on explanation. I discuss whether pluralism emerges as a stable position, and focus here on two main points: whether cases of equivalent explanations have been actually offered, and which ontological consequences should follow from these.